Putting Robots to Work

This robot is a product of the Artificial Intelligence Project at Stanford University between 1966-68. It was developed by Victor Scheinman and others as a way to test whether a robot manipulator could keep up with the computer controlling it.

Putting Robots to Work

In factories, robots don’t have to look human—they just need to do the work.

Computer-controlled industrial robots appeared less than a decade after the first computers. George Devol founded Unimation in 1956, making mechanical arms based on hydraulic actuators that eventually were accurate to .0001”. Unimation licensed its technology to Kawasaki in Japan. American companies entered the field in the 1970s, but few survived. Today, most industrial robots are made in Japan.

This robotic arm used sensors and cameras to do repetitive and complicated industrial tasks. But the company found sales sluggish, and refocused on AI-based visual inspection systems. Once a high-flier, Robomation closed in 1990.

Boston-based Denning designed this robot as a security guard patrolling for up to 14 hours at 3 mph. It radioed an alert about anything unusual in a 150-foot radius. The product, and the company, did not succeed.